Train describer system



Feb. 23, 1954 H. J. GROENENDALE TRAIN DESCRIBER SYSTEM Filed June 26,1951 Patented Feb. 23, 1954 TRMN BESERIBER SYSTEM Henry J, Groenendale,Forest Hillsi Pa, assigner.

Westinghouse Air- Brake Company, Wire merdng, Pa., a corporation ofPennsylvania Applicationlunez, 1951, Serial No. 233,616A

1. Claim.

My invention` relatesA to a train describer sys temi.. comprisingapparatus for indicating the class or destination ot a. vehicle, or the.route itis to take, at a. wayside. station at. the end of. apredeterminedcourse trayersed. by all of. the vehicles to. be indicated.

More particularly, my invention relates` to irn-A proved apparatus. forcontrolling an indicator. located in a control tower or on a passengerstar tion platform. so as to display a visual identifie cation of thenext vehicle or train to arrive at the station over a predeterminedcourse, and optionally, for controlling the switches and signals, of aninterlocking plant sov as to establish the proper route for eachapproaching train in turn.

Heretofore, in train describer systems,l the usual practice. has. beentot manually set up an indication of the, route ordestination of eachtrain bytheoperation of a selected one of a group ofv push buttons atits point of origin or, atv avv rear station, as.v shown typically in.Letters Patent of the United- States. No. 2,206,550, granted July 2,19.4.0, to Ralph Mordin, and to. transmit this indication upon thedeparture: of the train.,

as manifested by the occupancy of. a, track circuit, to an advancestation where. the; indication is to be displayed, and toY cancel theindication upon the arrival of thev train. at. the advance, stas tion bya similar track` circuity action. Since the stations may be separated bya considerable dis,-Y tance, a series of cascade connected storage indicators is usually provided at the advance station sucient in number tostore indications tot all of the, trains which. may occupy the space :a

between the twoy stations at any one: time..

Train describerv systems of the type mentioned tendA to become quite.complicated and expensive, and require close manual supervision to.properly correlate the stored indications with the corre spondingtrains, due to the occasional occupancy of the controlling tracksections by unidentified orl unclassied trains, orwhen switchingmovements have to bel provided for involving the repeated' occupancy ofthe track section at oneend onlyy of the controlled territory, orI inthe event a second trainy enters a controllingl track' section before itis vacated' by a first. train.

In spite of the numerous opportunities for th display, by multiplestorage indicators controlled by track circuits; of indications that arenot properly in step with the corresponding' trains,

'the checking or coin'rting or train' moyements by their occupancyof'certain track circuits; y)pas (Cl. 24S-*124) The system of myinvention particularly i adapted for use on railroads employing electrictraction Where alternating; current track. circuits. are used, in viewofits non-:dependence upon. the` release of a track relay for countingtrain morements, This is because of the difficulty of avoiding adverseeffects upon conventional train deA scriber systems due to the.temporary release of an alternating current track relay, in` the al4sence. of a train, as a result of a transfer from one power source toanother, or due to faults in the interconnected power supply system fromwhich the track circuit derives its energization,

By a suitable modication of the train reporting devices to adapt themvfor operation through greater clearances, the system of my invention is.adapted for use to indicate the destination of highway vehicles such asbusses, which pass over a predetermined course in approaching thevstation where the indications are to be displayed.

In the system of. my invention, in lieu` ofv set.L ting up theindications. for the different trains by the manual operation of pushbuttons at. the point of departure, I employ a` train reporting systemofasuitalole type, such as is disclosed, for example, in a pend-ingapplication for Letters Patent of' the United States, Serial No. 213..'Z-l6... filed by Richard Treharnay on March 151, 1951;.

In the train reporting system referred to, each train is equipped with amarker device comprising a normally inert coil connected to a condenserand mounted in a location such that the coil becomes inductively coupledmomentarily to Wayside windings when the train passes a reportingstation. Each such coil is tuned to resonance at a particular frequencycorresponding to a particular train destination or route, and eachreporting station is provid-ed with a plurality of primary windings,each constantly supplied with alternating current of a frequencydifferent from that supplied to the others, and which is one of those towhich the coils carried by the vehicles for a. particular destination orroute are resonant. 'Each of the primaryl W-nd aardgas ings has asecondary Winding associated therewith, to which a detector relay isconnected, sc arranged that the relay is operated momentarily on thepassage of an equipped train, when a train carried coil tuned to thecorresponding frequency is interposed, or at least is brought intoproximity with the corresponding pair of Windings. In this manner eachpassing train is caused to register its identification by the selectiveoperation of a particular relay at the reporting station.

In accordance with a feature of my invention each indication received ata reporting station is transmitted immediately by the operated detectorrela without track circuit cooperation, to an advance station, where theindications are stored in a series of cascade connected indicators ofany suitable type for snccessive display in the order of approach of thecorresponding trains.

In accordance with another feature of my invention, I provide a secondreporting device similar to the one described but located at thereceiving station. This second reporting device has but one detectorrelay which is connected to all of its secondary windings so that it isoperated nonselectiveiy on the passage of any train which has identifieditself by the action of its coil at the rst reporting: device, likewisewithout the cooperation of any track circuit apparatus. This secondreporting device controls the storage indicator in such a manner thatthe momentary operation of a detector relay is eiective to cancel thestored indication ci the approaching train and to allow it to 'ne superseded by the indication of the next foliowing train, if one is stored.

The apparatus of my invention thus operates in such a manner that thesame train carried coil is adapted to indicate the route or destinationof a train approaching a station and to cancel its indication upon thearrival of the train.

In a modicaticn of my carried coil is adapted to function in such amanner that on passing a station it not only cancels the indication ofits route or class previously transmitted from a station in the rear,but in addition transmits its identiiication concurrently to an advancestation located on the route established for the train. In this mannerthe reporting devices located at successive stations checkcorrespondence between the trains and their stored indications on eachtrain passage, thereby eliminating a source of erro' in prior systems inwhich the indications transmitted on the passage of trains are thestored indications set up by previous transmission from rear stations.

In practicing my invention, I propose to equip each unclassied trainwhich moves through the territory equipped with the apparatus of myinvention with a special coil and to provide corresponding meansgoverned thereby for displaying an indication of an unclassified train.The system of my invention has the advantage that in the event anunequipped train is interposed and moves through the controlledterritory hen invention the train tween two equipped trains, the properdisplay of the indications for the equipped trains is not interferedwith.

Since the train reporting device employed for registering theindications does not require the manual supervision to take care ofirregular.'

train movements as is the case when track circuits are used, this devicemay be located at a point where it is not convenient to provide suchsupervision, as for example at an intermediate point in automatic blocksignal territory, preferably at a minimum distance in the rear of thepoint where the indications are to be displayed. For the control of theswitches and signals of an interlocking plant, the preferred locationfor this reporting device is at the entrance to the usual approach zonein the rear of the entering signal which governs train movements intothe plant, so as to enaole a route to be set up and the entering signaland the corresponding distant signal to be cleared in ample time toenable the engineman of an approaching train to observe the distantsignal at clear, without reducing the speed of his train. The secondreporting device, used for cancelling the route indication, ispreferably located adjacent the entering signal, since the protectionfor the train movement through the plant is eected by the interlockingsystem the Ysame as when a route is set up by manual control, the traindescriber system being utilized for communication purposes only.

The system of my invention thus has the advantage that in lieu of asystem oi' line circuits extending from the points of origin of thetrains to each indicator location as required for the conventional traindescriber systems, the system becomes one made up or" relatively simpleindependent units, one for each station Where indications are to bedisplayed. Each unit or the system uses much shorter line circuits and acorrespondingly smaller number of storage indicators, two being usuallysufcient, with the ultimate result that the system is simpler and moreiiexible and consequently more reliable.

I shall now described one form of apparatus embodying my invention, andshall then point out the novel features thereof in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Fig. i shows a diagram of a stretch ofrailway track equipped with circuits and apparatus embodying one form ofmy invention, while 2 shows a modification of a portion thereof. In Fig.l, the track rails are represented diagraminatically oy a single line,and are divided by insulated joints to form a series of track sectionsiT, 3T, 15T and Section iT is Within the limits of the interlockingplant and includes two track switches iAv and iB in a crossover whichgives access to a parallel track section 2T. When the switches iA and IBare in their normal position, as shown, a main line route c-a isestablished over which traic movements in the left to right directionare governed by a high speed entering signal 2A, and when the switchesare reversed, a diverging route c-b is `established over which trafficmoving in the same direction is governed by a slow-speed entering signal2B.

It is to be understood that each of the trac sections is equipped With atrack circuit having the conventional track relay for controlling theswitches and signals and an associated system of relays by which theyare interlocked in a conventional manner, but since an explanation ofthese elements is not needed for an understanding of my invention, andfor the further reason that the apparatus of my invention functionsindependently of the track relays, these relays are not shown herein.

The portion d--c oi the stretch constitutesthe approach zone for theentering signals, a distant; signal 4i being located' at the entrance tosection 3T. It is. to be understood that. signal. 4 is' controlled. inai conventional mannerv so that it normally indicates caution as shownand indicates: 'proceed` only when route c-a is established and; signal2A indicates caution or proceed.

The train reporting. system used in. the system of my invention isembodied in the two devices TDi and TD2., located at points d and c,respectivelyf.. Each of these devices includes a plurality of primarywindings each of which isv constantly supplied with alternating 'currentof a frequency fl, f2 or )i3 different from that supplied to the others,and which identifies a particular destination, route orv class of train.Each primary winding has a corresponding secondary winding connectedthrough a rectifier toa detector relay such as AD, BD, ND orto acancelling relay CNbut is adapted to supply current to its secondarywinding to energize the relay onlyy when. av coupling coil tuned' toresonance at that particular frequency is interposed, or at least, isbrought into proximity with the corresponding pair of wind lllgS'.v

Each train to be identified, as typified by the vehicle V, is equipped.with such a coil, tuned to resonance at a selected one of the differentfrequencies. fl, f2 or f3.

To simplify the drawings, only the minimum amount of apparatus deemednecessary to illu.,u trate the principles of my invention is shown. Thetrack layout is arranged to provide only two routes, for example, andthe train reporting system is supplied with only two route identifyingfrequencies fi and f2 for the. two routes c-a and c--b, respectively,with the addition of a third frequency f3 for registering the passage ofa train without designating the. route it is to take.

It will. be evident from the foregoing that when an equipped trainpasses the reporting device TDI, a selected one of the relays AB, BD orND will. be momentarily energized, depending upon whether the resonantfrequency of the train carried coupling lcoil is frequency fl, f2v orf3., and wheny the train. passes the second. reporting. device I'DZrelay CN will be mometarily energized irrespective of whether the traincarried coil is tuned to frequency f I, f2 or f3.

The series of storage indicators may be arranged in any suitable mannerand as here shown, is of the type disclosed and claimed in Letters'Patent of the United States No. 2,171,756, issued' September', 1939, toLloyd V. Lewis. The storage. indicator system includes a first unit forregistering the indication for the first train to arrive at point c,comprising the register relays Al, BI and Ni and a lockout relay Li, anda second unit comprising the similar relays A2', BZ, N2 and L2' fortemporarily storing the indication of a train which passes point d at a,time when indication of a preceding train isl stored' in the. firstunit..

The first unit may control a visual indication means as illustrated bythe lamps AE, BE and NE which are selectively lighted when thecorresponding register relaysv are energized to indicate the. approachof a train having the destination ai or b, or the approach of anunidentified train, respectively, and these lamps may be placed in acontrol tower for the guidance ofv an operator or on a passenger stationplatform for the information of theA public.

Relays Ai and Bl may also govern route con,- trol apparatus. forestablishing. routeceac.. or

tlo

c-bf automatically by energizing a, wire-,NWcr RW for the control of aninterlocking. control system as indicated schematically in the drawing,it being understood that these circuits are arranged to be closed onlyunder proper traflic conditions as typified by the energization of alocking relay LR.

The push. button CNB is an emergency key such as it is the practice toprovide in apparatus of this character t0 enable the stored indicationsto be manually cancelled if desired.

The operation of the train describer system of my invention is asfollows, assuming first that the apparatus is in its normal condition asshown: When a train equipped with a, coupling coil tuned to thefrequency fl passes the device TDI at point d, relayr AD becomesmomentarily energized.

At. this. time the relays A2, B2 and N2' are ree leased and availablefor the storage of indica tions. This is made manifest by the fact thatrelay L2' is energized' to condition the unit to receivef an indication,over a circuit which extends from one terminal B of a local source ofenergy over back contacts c of relays- N2, B2 and A2 through the windingof relay L2v to the other terminal N of the same source over backcontacts b of relays ND, BD and AD.

When relay AD is operated, relay L2 is held energized over a sticklcircuit comprising a connection to terminal N over its own frontcontact a, and relay A2 becomes energized over a circuit from terminal Bover back contact c of relay LI and also over back contacts c of relayslNl, BI and AI in series, contact b of relay L2, contact a of relay AD,through the winding of relayy A2y to terminal N, and relay A2 picks upand completes a stick circuit at its front contact a which extends toterminal B over back contacts c of relays AI, Bi and NI in series andalso to terminal B over back contact c of relay Ll.

When relay' A2 picks up, the operation of its contact c releases relayL2. Since the relays A! Bl and Nlare released and available for thestorage. of. indications, relay L! now becomes energized: to conditionthe associated unit-to receive an indication over a circuit fromterminal B over back contacts c of relays N2 and B2, front contact c ofrelay A2', the winding of relay Li, to terminal N over the back contactsb of relays Ai, Bl and Nl in series.

Relay LI picks up, opening one ofv the: two con'- nections to. terminalB for the circuit of rela-y A2, and causes relay Al to become energizedover the circuit from terminal B at contact c of an emergency push'4button CNB, back contact a of relay CN, front contacts b of relays Liand A2, through the Winding' of relay At to terminal N.

Relay Ai' picks up and completes a stick circuit at its contact. ai andso remains energized; relay A LI is held energized over the stickcircuit including its own front contact et, by relay A2, but the stickcircuit for reiay A2 is now open at back contacts c of relays Al and Llso that relay A2 releases and then, due. to the opening of front contactc of relayv A2, relay L! releases'. By closing its front contact relayAi lights lamp AE to indicate that the route for the approaching train,and by' closing its front contact eg.. relay A! connects terminal .B towire NW under' proper traflic conditions to automatically establish thatroute. s.

In response tothe release of relay-A2' mentioned above, relay L2 isreenergized, unless.. the

'train is still in proximity to thedevioe TDI, in which case it mayhappen that the operations initiated by relay AD are completed before itreturns to its released position. In that case, relay L2 is energizedwhen relay AD releases, due to the movement of the train away from pointd.

It will be noted that only one operation of relay A2, B2 or N2 of thesecond storage unit will occur for each train passage for the reasonthat each such operation involves a complete cycle of operation of thecorresponding detector relay AD, BD or ND.

It will be seen that ii the train which passed the device TDS had beenequipped with a coupling coil tuned to frequency f2 or fil instead of tofrequency fl, a similar sequence of events would have occurred,involving diierent indication relays; relay BD or ND would becomemomentarily energized, then relay B2 or N2 would pick up to releaserelay L2 and to energize relay Ll, and finally relay B! or Nl would pickup and remain energized, releasing relay Ll. Relay Bl, when energized,lights lamp BE to indicate the approach of a train for route e-b andconnects terminal B to the route circuit RW, while relay Nl `whenenergized does not complete any route circuit but merely indicates theapproach of an unclassiiied train by the lighting of lamp NE.

Assuming that when relay A! is energized, as

described above, a second train equipped with a 5 coil tuned tofrequency f2, for example, passe point d, that is to say, before the rsttrain reaches point c; it will be evident that in this case, relays BDand B2 will become energized and relay L2 Will release, but relay Llwill remain released and the indication for the second train will remainstored in the second storage unit. Since relay B2 is energized, relay L2remains released and prevents the reception of an indication of a thirdtrain as long as two indications are stored. However, additional storageunits may be readily provided to store indications for additionaltrains, if needed, as taught by the Lewis patent.

When the rst train passes the second reporting device TD2, at point c,relay CN is mornentarily energized, and releases relay Al rendering thefirst storage unit available for the storage of an indication of asecond train, and if there is one stored in the second unit, relay Llbecomes energized. ln the case being described, relay Ll 'cecomesenergized when relay Ai releases, because front contact c of relay B2 isclosed, and When relay CN releases, relay BI picks up over back contactc of relay CN, and front contacts b oi relays Ll and B2. its stickcircuit is opened at back contacts c of relays Li and Bl. Relay Llreleases due to the opening of its stick circuit at front contact c ofrelay B2, and relay L2 becomes energized due to the closing of itspickup circuit at back contact c of relay B2.

The indication for the second train is now stored in the first unit;lamp BE is lighted to indicate that route ce-h is the route for thistrain and wire RW is connected to terminal B under proper trainoconditions to establish the route for this train.

When the second train passes the second reporting' device TD2, at pointc, relay CN is again momentarily energized, and releases relay Bi toextinguish lamp BE, which completes the resto'- ration of the apparatusto the condition it was in prior to the entry of the iirst train.

il It is to be noted that but one operation of re- Then relay B2releases, because lay Al, Bi or NI will occur for each train movementpast point c for the reason that an indica tion is not supplied to therst storage unit until relay CN releases, following a period ofenergizetion suilicient to cancel the previously stored indication, orin other Words, each cancellation is the result of a complete cycle ofoperation of relay CN.

In a modification of the apparatus of my invention, Fig. 2 issubstituted for a portion of Fig. l relating to the second reportingdevice TD2 at point c which in this inodiilcation is identical with thedevice TDI at point d. Each of its detector relays AD, BD and ND has aback contact c which replaces the corresponding contact of relay CN or"Fig. 1 in the holding circuits for the storage relays Ai, and whichlikewise serves to cancel the indication of an approaching train as soonas it arrives at point c.

In addition, the reporting device TD2 of Fig. 2 is arranged to serve asa transmitter like the device TD! of Fig. 1 so that the coil on eachtrain, the movement of 'which is authorized by the clearing or signal 2Aor 2B, will upon passing point c, cause the transmission of itsidenti'cation to an advance station located on the route established forthe train. As shown diagrammatically in Fig. 2, when signal 2A iscleared, it closes a contact f to condition r-elay AD or ND to transmitan indication to a station located at a point in advance on route c-c,and when signal 2B is cleared it similarly conditions relay BD or Nl) totransmit an indication to a station located at another point in advanceon a different route c-d.

It will be understood that when the apparatus or" my invention is usedfor controlling indicators on passenger' station platforms, differentindications will be required to distinguish trains having differentdestinations 'out which pass over the switches iA and iB shown herein,in the same position, and consequently a larger number of storage relayswill be required in each unit at such locations than at other locationsWhere the apparatus is used only for route control 01 indication. At thelatter locations, the detector windings for diierent destinations butinvolving the same route at the location in question may be connected inparallel to control the saine detector relay AD or BD as shown for thecancelling relay CN.

Although I have herein shown and described only one form of apparatusembodying my invention and one modification thereof, it is understoodthat various changes and modifications may be made therein within thescope of the appended claim Without departing from the spirit and scopeof my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

An automatic train describer system for identifying trains which passover diverging routes in a track layout which includes a track switchand a signal for each route for governing train movements over saidswitch, comprising a marker coil on each train having distinctiveelectrical characteristics which identify its route, two inductivereporting devices, one adjacent said signals and one at the entrance toan approach zone in the rear of said signals, each controllable by amarker coil on a passing vehicle, a wayside indicator f r storing anindication identifying the route of a train occupying said approachzone,

'the reporting device at the entrance to said kap proach zone beingeffective when a marker coil is in proximity thereto to transmit a routeindication for storage in said indicator, the reporting device adjacentsaid signals being eiective when a marker coil is in proximity theretoto cancel said stored indication, and control means for governing theoperation of said switch and signals controllable in accordance with theroute indication stored in said indicator.

HENRY J. GROENENDALE.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 5`1,797,651 2,030,924 2,122,358 2,414,472 10 2,576,424

Name Date Gergacsevics et al. Mar. 24, 1931 Kemmerer Feb. 18, 1936Preston June 28, 1938 Loughridge Jan. 2l, 1947 Sunstein Nov. 27, 1951

